A Santa hat-wearing school bus driver on Long Island, N.Y., has won the right to keep wearing his festive headgear, Newsday reported.

Kenneth Mott, who keeps a long, white beard, almost lost his job after a parent called the bus management to complain. Mott, who has worn the red and white hat every Christmas since he started with the Bauman & Sons bus company five years ago, was ordered to stop wearing the hat because a child didn't believe in Santa Claus and was bothered by the hat.

However, after Mott told other parents he might be fired for wearing the hat, supervisors changed their stance and said he could continue to wear the hat.

Is this just a stage this country is going through? One snively kid was -gasp- bothered by a bus driver wearing a Santa hat. SO the kid goes home and complains to his parents. Then one of the parents calls the bus company to complain.

Can you imagine that phone call? "Yes, one of your drivers -offended- my poor child by wearing a Santa hat."

Last Thursday, when he returned from driving children to school at the Commack School District, he said his supervisors at the Baumann and Sons bus company demanded that he take off his Santa hat. He was told that a parent complained to the district that their child doesn't believe in Santa Claus and was bothered by the hat.

Mott said he doesn't pretend to be Santa while driving, nor does he play Christmas carols or decorate his bus.

No, you mean he was wearing that Evil Hat whist taking kids to school? Think about the carnage done to those poor children!

What about when there are all those offensive stuffed Easter Bunnies near the front door of the local Wal-Mart, because only the Great Unwashed still believe in the Evil Easter Bunny?

Surely to goodness this brat has never kept a pulled tooth under his pillow for the Evil Tooth Fairy.

To put this "offense" in perspective, if the bus driver was wearing a turban and the kid complained, he would have to been called a racist and publicly forced to apologize to the guy. He then would have had to go to court-mandated anger management class.

I still can't believe all this nonsense some poeple do to get rid of christmas spirit. What can be so offensive. If you don't believe in it - fine think your part and let others believe their things.

It's getting out of hand no matter where. Even overseas in Germany it seems to catch on not to offend anyone.

Sorry I am a christian and I believe in Christmas. If you believe in other things and celebrate other holidays - fine with me. I leave you alone to celebrate yours and you leave me alone to celebrate mine.

Just my five cents worth!

Fully agree with you Shamalama. This kid probably will go into politics.

Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. I also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2007, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishes.

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While not being a complex concept, and being extraordinarily simple in its application since it requires doing absolutely nothing, live and let live still seems to be a terribly difficult practice for many to master.

No doubt this kid is getting these ideas from adults. Self righteous whining about trivialities is not just the compunction of the PC crowd, and while many preach tolerance vociferously, its usually their personal list of preferred ideas which they most want tolerated.

I don't think the kid will venture into politics, I think he/she will get a degree in education and try to entice the next generation to embrace fully the delusional vision that the rest of the world should be readjusted so it will in no way offend their sensibilities, whatever they happen to be at any occasion. After all, complaining about the delusions of others and insisting they never inconvenience one in public by expressing them is a full time job....there are just so damned many of them!

One might ask don't this kid and his parents have anything better to do? Sadly the answer is probably no. And yet, they're not complaining that other children starve every day worldwide or that many in their own country can't afford Christmas even if they believe its celebration is important, the best that their misguided fortitude can come up with is whining about a Santa hat. Yes, they do have something better to do - they've just chosen this. If subsequent information reveals that this family has given to charity all the money they've spent on gifts for holidays of any kind for the year, I'll take back everything I've said.

Dear Lord, lest I continue in my complacent ways, help me to remember that someone died for me today. And if there be war, help me to remember to ask and to answer "am I worth dying for?" - Eleanor Roosevelt

The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.-- Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)